Too Cool For You
by xCaroll
Summary: Nicky's life was picture-perfect. She was the life of every party. The woman every men wanted to date. The one every girl envied. But when an accident happens, she finds herself living in a different world. In the most literal sense of it.
1. Look-alikes

"So, Nicky, how was it?"

"I don't know." Nicole's high heels clicked against the parking lot pavement, her eyes trying to locate her car. "He seemed to like me and my audition, but I didn't like him. He had that creepy vibe to him." The girl on the other end of the conversation laughed as Nicole's eyes landed on her red Ford Mustang GT.

Nicole knew she was picky, too picky for an aspiring actress who only had made an appearing in two commercials so far. "Well, at least it's your second audition this week, right?"

Nicole unlocked her car and got in. "You're starting to sound like my mom, Hannah. I know I'll end up being a famous actress, but it takes time. You cannot rush talent." She retouched her red lipstick in the rear view mirror and winked at herself. "In the meantime, I can enjoy myself." As the key turned in the ignition, the car roared to life, echoing inside the half empty parking lot. "By the way, are you coming to the party later tonight?"

"I can't. I have to go to work tomorrow morning, it's my turn to do the morning shift."

"Oh Hannah, you're so lame." She joked as the car exited the parking lot.

"Not everyone has rich parents, who can provide a life of luxury to an unemployed daughter." Hannah replied nonchalantly, as she knew her best friend wouldn't get offended by it. "Not to mention that tonight's a special night."

Nicole furrowed her eyebrows. "Why?"

"Well, today is February the 8th, the second half of season five is about to begin!"

"What?" Nicole didn't pay attention to the road ahead of her, one of her hands holding the cell phone while the other played with the radio, trying to find a station with her type of music on.

"The Walking Dead, Nicky! It's airing tonight!"

Nicole laughed. "Oh that. I had forgotten you still watched that stupid tv show."

"Someone used to enjoy it as much as I do, ain't I right?"

"Well, the first two seasons were okay I guess, but you know I grew out of it." Her lips formed a big smile as she reminded the times when the two girls would watch the episodes together. "Besides, they killed my favorite character, what was the point of keeping on watching it?"

"Shane was crazy, I never understood why you liked him so much."

Nicole laughed, ignoring the stop sign and turning left. "I don't care, he was hot. What's the point of watching a tv show if the actors aren't hot?"

"How about for their talent? And there are many hot people on that show."

Once again Nicole laughed. Her eyes glanced at the traffic light, just as it turned from green to yellow and quickly rested again on the radio. "I never thought you had such low standards."

The traffic sign turned red, but Nicole never realized it, the sudden burst of light coming from her left side making her feel like a deer caught in headlights. A truck horn made her scream and stomp the brake pedal. Her name was shouted through the cell phone. As soon as the truck collided with her car, everything went dark.

***

The sun hit Nicole's face, making her slowly come back to her senses. The first thing she realized, before even opening her eyes, was that a massive headache had already formed in the back of her skull. _I must have drunk a lot last night._

She tried to open her eyes, blinking constantly, and only catching snippets of her surroundings. When she tried to move, a searing pain crawled up her spine and almost made her scream. Now that she was fully awake, the previous night's event flashed through her mind. She hadn't been drinking. She had been in a car accident.

Slowly sitting up and looking around, it was almost immediately that Nicole realized to be in a different place from the one where she had had the accident.

"This is not Miami," she mumbled to herself.

***

Daryl stopped the motorbike, his eyes narrowing at the sight in front of him. The car behind him, with Sasha at the wheel and Glenn next to her, stopped too. For a few seconds nothing could be heard except for the moans and groans of the dead.

"There are a lot of them," Sasha spoke. She and Glenn had now stepped out of the car and walked towards Daryl.  
The three of them stared at the building. It was surrounded by military tents, trucks and walkers. Lots of walkers.

The fence that separated them from the dead had definitely been put there by the army, an effort to keep people safe probably during the first months of the turn.

"Food, medicine, this place looks like a gold mine." Glenn took a stereo from the back seat of the black car. "The least we can do is try."

The idea was simple. One of them would distract the walkers while another one of them cut through the fence. The third would turn the stereo on, powered by car batteries, and they would all quickly drive away. Hopefully, in a few days the music would have drawn them away from that place.

"Alright, let's go!" Daryl yelled, as Sasha jumped to the car a drove off to pick up Glenn who was about half a mile away, the herd already getting too close.

***

Nicky got up on her feet and looked around. This could only be some kind of sick joke. Somehow she had ended up in the middle of nowhere without her car or any other mean of transportation, after having a car accident she could barely remember.

The faint sound of music made her spin on her feet. It seemed to echo throughout the woods, but she couldn't tell exactly where it was coming from. With forest surrounding her and only a small road to give her some kind of direction, she started to walk along it.

She didn't know how long she had been walking, but her feet were already hurting inside her stiletto shoes, when the sound of motorcycle's engine made her turn around. It only took a few seconds for it to show up on the horizon, closely followed by a car, and Nicky finally sighed in relief. Someone could finally tell her where she was.

"Hey!" She waved at the man riding the bike, trying to catch his attention. A big smile decorated her face.

However, as the bike got closer, her smile quickly vanished. She couldn't understand how, but stopping only a few feet away from her was Daryl Dixon, a character from her best friend's favorite tv show. A fictional character. How the hell was that possible? Nicky blinked several times. Maybe she was having hallucinations due to the car accident.

The car stopped next to him, rolling the windows down. Nicole couldn't help but look like a fish out of water, her mouth opening and closing as she tried to say something, but the words didn't come out. Right there in front of them, with suspicious looks sprawled all over their faces, were Glenn, Daryl and a girl she recognized from the few episodes she had watched from season three, but which name she couldn't remember.

"Let's go," Daryl grunted, his bike roaring to life.

"Wait." Sasha raised her hand and looked at the girl who started back at her with big blue eyes. She looked like she didn't belong there; wearing makeup, high heels and a knee length jacket that made her look like she wasn't wearing anything underneath. "Are you okay?"

Nicky only managed to nod. She couldn't understand what was going on. Her brain worked hard to come up with a reasonable explanation, and the most logical right now was that she was dreaming. Maybe she was still unconscious, inside her car, and all this was just a product of her own imagination. Or maybe this was a prank.

Something inside her brain suddenly clicked. It had to be it, these actors were probably here filming for some tv show where they pranked people. As realization hit her, her eyes widened and she smiled. "Am I being punk'd?" She looked around with haste. "Am I gonna be on tv?" She fixed her hair and placed her hands on her hips, oblivious to the shock on Glenn, Daryl and Sasha's face.

Daryl started his bike again. This woman was crazy, why the hell did they have to stay there and listen to her nonsense?

Something moving on the other side of the woods caught his attention. As a walker stumbled from the outskirts of the forest and into the road, Daryl aimed his crossbow at it.

"Oh my God!" Nicky was astonished. "You even brought a real looking zombie!" She started to laugh. The dead man shuffled towards her, arms outstretched and teeth showing. "You guys are so good…" She kept on laughing as the walker grabbed one of her jacket sleeves.

A bolt pierced its head. Blood splattered and hit Nicky's face. The corpse fell to the ground and Nicole was no longer laughing, her eyes widened at the man on the ground, hands shaking and the foul taste on her mouth predicting that all her stomach's content would soon be on the ground.

Sasha got out of the car, cautiously observing the girl as she threw up. She hadn't seen anyone act like that since the beginning of the outbreak and without really knowing why she felt the need to help her.

Nicole wiped her mouth. That was real blood, and Daryl had really killed him. She studied the dead man next to her. A real zombie, living dead or, as they called it in the tv show, a real walker.

"I'm sorry about this," Nicole spoke once she regained her composure. "This is all very confusing." Her weak smile was directed to Sasha, who seemed the most worried out of the three. "I've just been in a car accident and I don't really know where I am."

"Are you hurt?" It was Glenn's turn to speak. Besides the possibility of being crazy, she looked harmless. And unarmed.

"I don't know." Nicole rested her hand on her head. Her headache only kept getting worse. "I think I hurt my head."

"Are you alone?" Sasha asked.

"Yeah, I guess. I don't know exactly how I got here, though."

"Do you know your name?" Glenn asked.

Nicole smiled. "I'm Nicole, but everybody calls me Nicky."

"I'm Glenn." He smiled back. "This is Sasha and Daryl."

Nicole nodded. It was really them, not just some incredibly accurate look-alikes. "Just to make sure" she swallowed hard, before daring to ask the question. "Are we in Georgia?"

Sasha and Glenn nodded.


	2. Boring Days

It had to be a dream. Nicole's brain knew that, but her body had felt something entirely different once the car had reached the prison's front gate.

Dreams, especially hers, were usually weird and confusing. This was also weird and confusing, but somehow, it made perfect sense in the tv show's world.

She smiled to herself, thinking how much Hannah would have loved to see and talk to them, to be in the same car as Sasha and Glenn like she was now.

The gates closed behind them. She watched Daryl stop his bike and going straight for Rick. Nicole already knew what they were talking about; she had watched the show long enough to understand what was going to happen next.

Rick glanced at her as she got out of the car. Yes, she was the new survivor. The one they had to keep an eye on. And after what had happened, they probably thought that she was crazy too.

Nicole diverted her eyes to the source of the noise that came from behind her. Her eyes narrowed and her nose scrunched. The dead really smelled bad. Much worse than she could have ever imagined. Not to mention that standing so close to someone whose eyeballs or other body parts were about to fall to the ground made her want to vomit again. Her hand flew to her mouth. Something she probably would have done it by now if she hadn't emptied her stomach a while ago.

A gray haired lady approached Nicole. "Hi, I'm Carol." She smiled.

Nicole managed to smile back, despite the nauseating feeling that still took over her. "Nicky."

Once they took a few steps towards the prison, Rick's eyes darted to Nicole. She had always liked him as a character, but now she was terrified of him. She didn't want him to interrogate her or give her the intimidating look he was famous for.

"Nicole, right?" Rick's voice made her hold her breath.

"Nicky," she spoke, trying to ignore the way he examined her. "I prefer being called that way."

Rick nodded. "I heard you were in an accident. Do you know exactly what happened?"

"Not really. All I remember is waking up inside the car and seeing no one." She lied. If she told the truth, nobody would believe her, so why bother? "I was trying to find someone who could help when your people found me."

"Well, take her to Hershel," Rick spoke to Carol before turning his attention to Nicole. "He's one of our doctors and he'll make sure everything's okay with you."

Nicole didn't say a word. Hershel was not really a doctor, she knew that, but she liked him and knew that he was capable of taking care of her.

On their way to meet Hershel, Carol and Nicole had crossed paths with Michonne, Maggie and a few survivors she didn't recognize. Her mind raced, still searching for answers. Were those people real? Was all this just a product of her imagination? Everything seemed so vivid and yet impossible.

For the first time Nicole regretted not watching all of the episodes with Hannah. She could have known what was going to happen, who the other survivors were and if this _thing_ was really an exact copy of the episodes or just her imagination running wild.

As soon as the cell bock door closed behind them an overwhelming sensation traveled her body. She was really inside the prison. The same prison she had seen on tv. Nicole stopped, her eyes taking in everything in front of her. It looked so cold. So depressing. So real.

"We're almost there." Carol's voice made Nicole close her mouth, now realizing she had been staring at all that with her mouth wide open.

Before reaching what was supposed to be Hershel's cell, he appeared, coming down from the upper level of the prison, where more cells were.

Carol introduced Nicole and explained what had happened to her. "It's nice to meet you Nicky." He extended his hand and she shook it. A smile crept across her face. His hand was warm and she could feel the strength in it, how could a dream make her feel all that?

Nicole had stayed inside a cell for the past hour. After Hershel had examined and talked to her he had left and Beth had appeared with a smile and new clothes for her wear. A brown tank top, dark washed jeans and combat boots that were a little too big for her feet. She had always been the type of girl who wore short dresses and high heels. The higher the better. She looked down at her hands, tightly clasped between her legs. She hated her new clothes.

The sound of someone clearing her throat made look up. Maggie waved from the cell block's entrance.

"Are you okay?"

Nicole only smiled.

"I can show you around if you want to, we've come up come up with a system to have showers." She seemed somewhat proud of that fact and Nicole remembered all the amenities this world didn't have. No internet, no cell phones, no hot water, no electricity. "Then you can join us for dinner." Maggie continued as Nicole got up from the bunk bed and followed her. She really hoped this was all just a dream, or else very boring days would be ahead of her.


	3. Real Life

_Why the hell would I want to do that?_ Nicole looked at Karen and the other survivors, who kept stabbing the walkers against the prison fence.

By now she had learned a few things about this place and one was that everybody had to help in some way. Nicole rolled her eyes as Karen gestured for her to come closer. She knew she had to help, but killing walkers was not what she had envisioned helping with.

She had also learned that this was not a dream. Three times she had fallen asleep in this place and three times she had woken up in the same uncomfortable bunk bed and facing the same cold concrete walls.

Nicole tried to stab one of the walkers with the rusty pipe Karen had given her, but only managed to make the pipe get stuck in the dead's eye socket.

Nicole sighed. Three days down, countless more to go.

"Hey, beautiful." She heard Tyrese speaking to Karen as he approached them.

"Hey yourself." Karen smiled at him and handed Nicole her weapon, a cane that had been transformed into a spear.

Tyrese pulled her to the side and they started to talk as Nicole once again tried to kill another walker. She hadn't intended to overhear their conversation, but once she heard Tyrese speaking about going on a run and not linking to kill the walkers on the fence, Nicole had to step in.

"I hate it too." She blurted out. The two stopped talking and stared at her. "I'm sorry, I couldn't help but hear it. I want to go on a run too. I might not be good with weapons or at killing these things, but I'll never be if I don't practice, right?"

Tyrese seemed somewhat unsure about what to say. Karen looked at him and shrugged. "Why not?" He finally spoke and Nicole smiled, handing back the makeshift spear to Karen.

"Be careful out there." Karen kissed Tyrese and resumed to her place by the fence.

Tyrese was loading the Hyundai with supplies for the run when Nicole joined them. A lot of people were going and Nicole wasn't surprised to see that Sasha, Glenn and Daryl were also going. She had heard many people talking about today's run and she knew now that they were going back to the place where they had been on the day they found her.

That was another reason why she wanted to go. She wanted to travel that road again, make sure that it was real and that she had really woken up in Georgia without any traces of her old life.

Nicole was fixing her borrowed knife in its sheath when Bob's voice made her turn around.

"Hey." His smile was big and his attention mostly towards Sasha. "I'd like to start pulling my weight around here."

Sasha leaned against the car door. "Bob, it's only been a week."

"That's a week worth of meals, a roof over my head. Let me earn my keep." His gaze shifted to Nicole. "Besides, she's been here for what, three or four days? If she gets to go why can't why?"

Sasha seemed to think for a while. "You were out on your own when Daryl found you."

"That's right. And wasn't she as well?"

"I just want to make sure you know how to play on a team."

"We ain't gonna do it unless it's easy." Daryl said as he walked by. "If it wasn't, she wouldn't be comin'." He pointed his head towards Nicole before walking away. She felt the urge to say something in her defense, but she didn't know what. She'd never experienced indifference from anyone before in her life and now it was clearly getting to her.

The trip had been quiet, at least for Nicole. She still felt out of her element, a fish out of water. Her friends from her old life wouldn't recognize her now. The fun, people person they once knew just stared at the passing landscape without opening her mouth once.

Her old life. Nicole tried to catch a glimpse of her old life as they crossed another road. Was that the one where she had been found? She didn't know, they all looked the same with nothing but forest surrounding them.

They parked the car in front of a large store that seemed to have been turned into a military outpost a long time ago, as it now looked empty and abandoned.

"Army came in and put these fences up." Daryl told Bob, who had ended up coming with them. "Made it a place for the people to go. Last week when we spotted this place, there was a bunch of walkers behind this chain-link keeping people out like a bunch of guard dogs."

Nicole closed the car door and looked around. Apprehension invaded her, as this was the first time she was outside the prison walls. She didn't know what to expect. Well, actually she did, she knew what kind of dangers existed in this world, but she wasn't sure if she was ready to face them.

"So they all just left?" Bob asked.

Sasha looked at him. "Give it a listen."

Everybody stood silent for a second. Music echoed in the distance and Nicole recognized it immediately. It was the same music she'd heard coming from the woods when she had woken up in the middle of nowhere.

"You drew them out." Michonne spoke.

Sasha nodded. "Put a boom box out there three days ago."

"Hooked it up to two car batteries." Glenn added.

"All right, let's make a sweep." Daryl entered the fenced area through the large opening. "Make sure it's safe. Grab what you can."

Everyone else followed him expect Nicole. She still looked around, knowing that it was best for her to follow them, but her feet not really wanting to.

She grabbed the hunting knife before crossing the fence. The smell of death leaked from every inch of that place. She was supposed to look inside the tents, search for supplies, but she couldn't. One look at the body found inside of the first one she'd peeked inside, had made her sick to her stomach. The decaying flesh. The flies around it. The acid smell that impregnated her clothes and left a foul taste in her mouth. She covered her mouth with the back of her hand. Maybe she couldn't do this.

She followed the others to the store entrance, still trying to hold her breakfast in. Daryl, Zach and Michonne stood by the doors, waiting for the walkers to appear after Daryl had banged on one of the windows. Nicole hoped none were inside.

Zach was once again playing his game of trying to find what Daryl did for a living before the end of the world. Nicole had heard him trying to guess it yesterday, and the day before and it was getting pretty tiring. She already knew what he did. Nothing. It seemed pretty obvious to her, actually, someone who acted like him and talked liked him could only be a nobody.

"What about you?" Zach's attention shifted to Nicole once he understood he had failed at his guessing game again.

Nicole smiled. She had always felt proud of what she did and of what she aspired to be. "I was an actress." Her voice oozed confidence.

No one said a word. No one seemed surprised or at least curious. Nicole's smile dropped. "You know, just like -"

A loud bang against the window, followed by groans, made her jump and stop midsentence. There they were. The dead. Tyrese dragged a body to the store entrance.

She was about to say it, Nicole suddenly realized. She was about to say she was just like them. Actors.

"All right, we go in, stay in formation for the sweep." Nicole heard Sasha instruct, but her brain didn't register much.

She wasn't like them, because this wasn't a show anymore. This was real life now.


	4. Stand Up

Moving through the aisles somewhat silently, the occasional, intentional clatter of something hitting the floor or a low whistle filling the space around them in an attempt to draw out any walkers, Nicole had fallen into step beside Glenn as he moved through the electronics section. Her eyes brushed over the untouched supply of laptops and phones, her mind jumping to the last memory she had of the world she used to live in, the one of being on the phone with her best friend.

The sound of squeaking trolley wheels seemed to make the darkness much less eerie to her, as if it was totally normal to be shopping in the dark. Nicole's eyes followed Glenn's flashlight as he scanned the darkness, the light hovering over a sign for cameras briefly before continuing. Reaching out into the darkness, Nicole picked up one of the Polaroid cameras and a roll of film before following the light. Without a word, she tapped the box against his covered arm gently, holding it out for him to take. Glenn hesitated at the sight, looking up at Nicole as surprise and confusion crossed his face. She only smiled, neither of them saying anything as Glenn packed the camera in his backpack and a loud crash filled the silence around them.

Nicole flinched at the loud sound of glass breaking, her head snapping in the direction of creaking timber as someone called out in pain. Fear quickly consumed her as she watched Glenn run towards the noise, frantic voices starting to fill the store. With her knife at the ready, she started to take small steps, reaching the voices, and rounding a corner to find Bob pinned down by a tall, wooden liquor cabinet.

Light flooded in from the other side, Daryl's face behind it as he assessed the situation. "You cut or something?"

"No, man, but my foot is caught." Bob breathed out.

"He's just caught." Daryl stood, moving to grip at the wood before raising an eyebrow at Glenn, making him quickly move in to help.

"What happened!?" Someone called out from the darkness as they strained under the heavy weight, Tyreese stepping in to help.

"Everyone's all right." Glenn huffed. "We're over in wine and beer!"

"I was moving fast, man. Drove right into the drinks." Bob was talking quickly as they lifted the first of the cabinets to get closer to the section he was pinned down under.

"Man, you lucked out." Tyreese knelt down beside the other man while Nicole looked around, a strange feeling crawling her skin, as if she was watching a horror movie and knew something bad was about to happen. "If this thing had come down on you the wrong way –"

Reflex drove Nicole to cover her head as the ceiling above them fell in, clattering against the other side of the almost horizontal shelving that was resting on top of Bob. Glancing back up, Nicole couldn't help but let out a muffled scream as she saw the piñata like walker than hung from the opening by its intestines as the others all converged in the one area. All eyes were on the mess; everyone unmoving as if doing so would send it falling into their laps.

"Yeah... We should probably go now." Glenn managed as the chorus of moans began to seep through the ceiling as it threatened to crumble above them.

"Bob's still stuck!" Daryl called everyone into action, moving forward to grab at the shelf that still pinned the other man down. "We need to get him outta there."

With that, walkers began to fall through the ceiling all around them, hitting the ground with enough force to send some of them splattering across the floor. Nicole ducked out of the way, completely loosing her calm as one came crashing down beside her, head first, dull crimson painting the floor and splattering all over her. The red fluid that hit her skin made her feel dizzy and she had to summon all the strength left in her body to keep herself from crying. Above them, the ceiling creaked, as if it could come down on them at any moment, and by the rate of dead bodies falling through, Nicole couldn't bring herself to doubt if it would.

A hungry groan made her turn around, just as she was about to regain her composure, to make her face a walker with its guts hanging out. This time she screamed. Loud enough for every person, alive or dead, to hear. The dead grabbed at her shoulder its teeth just inches from her face and she tried to push it away, knowing that it would be easier to just use the knife to stab the walker in the head, but not having the courage to do it. A twang made the dead suddenly go limp, Nicole's eyes now on the bolt that had pierced the dead man's skull.

"What the hell are you waiting for?" Daryl's angry question was directed to her, but she chose to ignore it, watching the dead man now on the floor. All around them, the dead were falling through the roof, some catching in the wiring or by their own innards just as the firsts did. The yelling and the gunfire clouded her mind, made her taste bile again and for a moment she forgot where she was. "We're here to find supplies, not to babysit you!"

"Shut up!" Nicole's remark surprised Daryl, her face wet with tears but her eyes angered. The metal above them snapped. She walked past him and towards the cabinet where Bob still remained trapped. A walker worked to drag itself closer to his pinned down position and grabbing at its stumps – legs having been severed off – Nicole pulled it back, the walker hissing in complaint. "Well, what the hell are you waiting for?!" Nicole turned to face Daryl with hands on her hips and her angry words louder than necessary.

The roof began to cave in as Daryl and Zach helped Nicole, pulling the other man from under the slightly lifted shelving. Nicole's eyes snapped from the falling paneling to a sickening type of scream. Turning back to Zach, her eyes instantly went to the walker that had bitten into his calf, decaying fingers gripped around his ankles as the young boy called out. As the dead body pulled Zach to the ground, everyone stopped, as if no one knew exactly what was happening. Glenn's voice shouting the kid's name made everyone snap back to reality, the creaking becoming too loud to be ignored.

"We gotta go now!" Everyone moved to the sound of Daryl's voice, Nicole's eyes glued to the walker that had worked up its way to Zach's neck as she trailed close behind the others and the ceiling fell in.

A huge metal frame spilled out into the middle of the store, the sound of impact followed by the screeching of breaking glass. Nobody said a word, each of them taking a moment to collect their shallow breaths and scattered thoughts as the world settled around them.

They weren't given any longer to rest, the sound of desperate moans calling out from inside the store as the surviving walkers followed them out. Quickly checking that everyone was fine, they moved back towards the cars faster than they had come in, not bothering to stop and secure the hole in the fence for another day. They wouldn't be back, not now.

Nicole slid into the passenger seat slowly, finding herself selfishly thankful that nothing had happened to her. With no time to pack away the things they had in their trolleys, the group had only left with what had been stored in their backpacks and soon everybody was inside their cars, the drive back home now much quieter than the one back there.

They arrived at the prison just as quiet as when they had left the store, the moon lighting the world around them as they all got out of the cars. The overwhelming images of Zach's death still played inside Nicole's mind as she watched Rick approach, calling out through the darkness.

"How'd you go?"

Glenn shook his head slowly, clearing his throat as he moved away from the circle. "The same as always."

It was only then that Rick seemed to fully comprehend the nature of the solemn atmosphere of the group, taking in the drained, exhausted faces that looked back to him and recognizing the ones that were no longer there. "Zach?"

"Yeah."

He dipped his head, eyebrows pulling together in contemplation. "You guys call it a night. I'll go tell Beth. We don't want her waking up to find out by herself."

"Nah." Daryl shook his head, adjusting the weight of his crossbow as he did. "I was there, I'll do it."

"No, I'll do it." Nicole stepped in, her eyes almost daring Daryl to oppose her. "I was there too, and I'm sure she would rather hear it from someone who can be there for her if she needs."

Rick raised an eyebrow at Daryl as Nicole quickly walked away from them, silence surrounding the two men as Nicole's footsteps got weaker.


	5. Sickness

The footsteps were the only thing that kept her from falling into the solemn silence that had followed them all home. As she moved towards the cell block, she noticed the foyer was empty, everyone having moved off to their own cells for the night. As she passed Rick's own cell, she watched the man offering her an encouraging nod before disappearing behind the loosely hung sheet for a door.

Nicole peered into Beth's cell before entering, finding the young girl laid out on her bed, scribbling in one of her many different books.

Nicole hesitated before clearing her throat.

"Hey." The blonde girl looked up.

"Hey," she whispered back, always watching Beth as she lowered herself down onto her bed.

"What's up?"

"Zach," Nicole started, biting at her lip, trying to assess her reaction before continuing.

"Is he dead?" Beth asked bluntly, catching Nicole off guard.

"Yeah." She simply nodded. "I'm sorry." Her eyes followed as Beth stood, and then moved towards the dusty sign propped up reading _This workplace has been thirty days without an accident_ , simply removing the three.

"What?" Beth frowned, taking in the way Nicole seemed to study her carefully. "I just don't cry anymore. I'm just glad I got to know him, you know?"

Nicole nodded, despite the fact of not agreeing with Beth. She never got to say goodbye to her friends or parents, and she knew she would give anything just to have that chance. But then again, did they ever got to exist in this world?

She watched as Beth moved forward to once again sit on her bed, not being able to help the tear that strayed from her eyes. "I'm glad I didn't say goodbye, I hate goodbyes."

"Yeah, me too," she whispered, her brain realizing that it was probably better not to know what had happened to the people she loved.

Both girls looked up, as Maggie moved in cautiously towards the cell to embrace her little sister tightly. Smiling a silent apology to the younger Greene girl once more, Nicole took her leave.

Keeping her feet light, trying to keep her steps from echoing through the cell block, Nicole moved up the stairs without another word. She sat on her bed, the mattress springs complaining. She kicked off her boots and stared at her hands with a disgusted look, spots of dried blood covering them. Nicole worked at wiping them clean from her seated position, reaching for the bottle of water she kept on the ground beneath her bed to soak the rag she had learned to always keep with herself. Even after they were clean, she rubbed at her seemingly stained skin, only stopping when a frustrated sigh escaped her lips.

She lowered herself down to the mattress and stared at the upper mattress frame, her mind catching up with all that had happened in just one day. Violence, blood and death. For four days she had been living in that world, and still she couldn't believe she was actually there. She wasn't stupid, she knew she would have never survived if she hadn't met Daryl, Sasha and Glenn on the road, but every night she hoped and wished to wake up and find herself back in her bed and away from these people. Maybe tomorrow would be the day.

* * *

Nicole stood in the shade, eyes going straight to where Rick was talking to both Michonne and Carl. Michonne was readying her horse for the journey ahead and Nicole couldn't help but envy her. She wished she could be that strong, that independent, but instead all she did was hide from almost everybody and regret from waking up in that depressing cell every morning.

Her eyes followed the man with the angel wings on his vest walk towards them, before butting out his smoke and turning to face Glenn, approaching from down the field. Nicole looked down at the Polaroid camera in her right hand. Glenn had given it to her earlier that morning, only asking why she had brought it in the first place. She honestly didn't know, and that's what she had answered him. Maybe she needed something to remind her of her old life, a life when everything wasn't just about surviving. Or maybe she just needed something to keep herself busy.

Nicole looked up, Beth's voice catching her attention when she greeted her, baby Judith in one arm and the other hand holding a baby bottle. Her head spun towards the click and flash that broke through the silence, eyes going straight to the tiny piece of paper Nicole worked at shaking. A smile formed on Beth's lips, quickly approaching Nicole to look at the developing photo.

"Do you want it?" Nicole asked. Judith could hardly be seen, but it had turned out to be a really good photo from Beth.

"No, but thank you." Beth adjusted Judith against her hip. "Do you want to help me with her?"

Nicole immediately scrunched her nose. She didn't like babies that much, in her opinion all they did was cry and poop. She was about to make an excuse for not going with Beth, when the sound of a muffled gun shot from within the walls of the prison made their heads turn.

In a split second a lazy morning had turned into a chaotic one. Rick yelled as he rushed up the field towards them, while Daryl and Glenn had already grabbed their weapons in time to find two girls rushing from D block. Others were rushing from C block, their eyes wide as they tried to place the commotion.

"Walkers in D!" Glenn called from his position closer towards the other cell block, his knife clutched in his hand.  
"What about C?" Daryl huffed as they grouped with those pouring out of their own cell block, Rick slipping in behind them with the same question playing on his lips.

"Clear." Sasha nodded as they ran, looking to Rick briefly and then to both Nicole and Beth, Rick following her gaze to make sure that Judith was safe. "We locked the gates to the tombs, Hershel's on guard."

"It's a breach?"

"Don't know," Sasha called out from behind, in response to Daryl. "We just followed the plan."

They pushed through the outside door, silence falling among the people who stood outside, once the metal door closed. Nicole didn't know most of those people. They were from another camp, Maggie had once explained to her, a walled town which leader had turned out to be a bloodthirsty psychopath. Less than a minute later the door opened again, a scream escaping from inside the cell block just as Daryl appeared, off handing to Karen the little boy he had been carrying in his left arm and disappearing once again.

The cleanup was already taking place when Nicole entered the cell block. Amongst the bodies that lay on the ground, Hershel and a bearded man, Doctor S, studied the unmoving body of a teenage boy, while Rick and Daryl hovered over them.

"No bites, no wounds… I think he just died." Hershel commented.

Doctor S kneeled down to study the blood streaks running down the boy's face. "Horribly, too. Probably pleurisy aspiration." He glanced at Bob, who had joined the crowd. "Choked to death on his own blood, caused those trails down his face."

"It's a sickness?" Bob frowned. As an army medic, he was more than likely experienced in stopping the bleeding of severed limbs rather than identifying illnesses. "From the walkers?"

"No, these things happened before _they_ were around." He shook his head, looking back down to the body. "Most likely an aggressive flu strain."

"Hell, he was just eating barbeque yesterday. How could somebody die in a day just from a cold?" Daryl interjected.

"I had a sick pig, it died quick." Rick frowned up at him, his own blue eyes seeming to swim with questions. "Yesterday, I saw a sick boar out in the woods."

"Pigs and birds, that's how these things would spread in the past." Hershel nodded as Doctor S pulled himself up from the floor. "We need to do something about those hogs."

"Maybe we got lucky. Maybe these two cases are it."

Nicole had to take a step back from the body, suddenly starting to feel sick. They were surrounded by people that were supposed to stay dead once they died, so she knew they weren't going to be lucky about this.

"I think we should call the council together. Get everyone on the same page." Hershel turned to face Daryl.

Daryl knew what Rick's reaction would be before it even happened, so it was no surprise when the other man shook his head and eagerly took his leave. Only a few feet away from him, Nicole's eyes followed Rick with a worried face.

"Maybe you should talk to him." Nicole's spoke directly to Daryl, and that caught him off guard. "He might have given up his lead, even his spot on the council, but I know you still value his opinion. Besides, he looks like he needs it."


	6. Help

Nicole watched, with a sinking feeling of worry, as some people now moved to cell block A, the block where they would be quarantined. Everybody had been advised to keep their distance from the ones that had been inside cell block D, especially from the ones that had been living in there. The ones like Nicole. She had been living in that cell block since the day that she'd arrived and, although she didn't feel sick, anxiety had already crept up on her. As if it wasn't enough to have the dead walking, now there was the possibility of dying of some flu just because they didn't have the proper medicine or hospitals anymore.

"Could you help me?" Maggie asked as she passed by her, catching Nicole by surprise.

"Of course." It was Nicole's immediate answer, for once forgetting to ask for what or why did she needed her help. She followed the shorter haired girl to the walkway between the two fences, eyes moving to where Rick and Daryl were starting to dig graves for the people that had died.

Maggie handed her a thick piece of wood, with the blade of a kitchen knife attached to it, and grabbed a spear for herself. Overnight the dead had started piling up and with a large number of people now dead or in quarantine, there wasn't much people to take care of them.

Nicole could hear the muffled voices of Rick and Daryl over the moans, as she tried to hit the dead with fatal blows, her curiosity taking over her after a few seconds. She turned around to look at the two men. She knew what they were talking about just by observing Rick's posture, it was something that had been on everybody's mind as they did not like to see their leader falling into the background just because he was afraid of making mistakes.

Not for the first time since her arrival, Nicole found herself wishing she had paid more attention to what her best friend had told her about the tv series she liked so much. It felt so real now, to her they were real people and she was starting to care for them. She only wished she had a way to help them.

"Rick! Daryl!" Maggie screamed, Nicole's eyes snapping to where she pointed back towards the fence.

"Shit," Rick spat, Daryl throwing his shovel away to reach back for his crossbow. He hastily took in the way the dead had begun to pile up un-relentlessly against the chain link.

Maggie was trying to yell something over the moans as they rounded the gate into the run, each scooping up one of the tools that hung from the fence.

In a rush of adrenaline, Nicole jumped back to the work of thrusting the bladed end of her weapon through the fence and into the skull of a walker as Rick and Daryl arrived, Glenn and Sasha not far behind them. They worked at stabbing those closest to them first; limp, rotting bodies piling up against the base of the fence as they worked.

The fence before them started to drop closer to the ground, the supports threatening to give out as the dead moved into the spot of those that had fallen, using the bodies as leverage. The rattle of the fence and moans of the dead drowned out everything else around them, the prison could have blown up behind them and they probably wouldn't have noticed.

"Are you seeing this?" Sasha's voice fought to be heard over the commotion before them, as Daryl pulled his spear like weapon from the eye socket of a walker. He paused for a moment, drifting towards where she was standing to take in the dead rats that littered the fence line. "Is someone feeding these things?"

His gaze was pulled back to the fence as it continued to dip under the weight of the dead, a single walker having made the climb, threatening to climb the top of the metal frame and fall into their laps. "Heads up!"

The fence continued to bow, desperate yells struggling to be heard over the moans as the others rushed forward to press their weight against the fence.

"Everybody back! Come on, back now!" Daryl yelled, taking a few steps back. They watched as the walkers became more excited with the close proximity of food, their mouths too close and the fence getting lower.

"If the fence keeps bending in like that, those walkers are coming over it," Sasha huffed, everyone unintentionally looking at Rick for guidance.

The other man's gaze was towards the field, dropping to the ground and back to the field as he rubbed at his face, eyes finding their final resting place on Daryl's. "Get the truck. I know what to do."

Nodding, Daryl rushed up towards the top gate alone. With the main truck currently still sitting, still packed at the entrance, he opted to grab the smaller one they used for around the prison jobs. He slipped into the drivers seat, breathing shallow, and hoped that the last person who used it had thought to fuel it up, relief filling his body as the engine rumbled to life.

Rick was waiting by his wooden shelter in the middle of the field, leaned over the fence into the pig enclosure as Daryl edged the small, open-roofed vehicle and trailer through the opening that the truck allowed, moving down the dirt road to pull up along the side of the farm. _We need to do something about those hogs_ , Hershel had warned him that morning. _And this was something_ , Rick noted as he loaded the piglets into the back, wordlessly.

Maggie was already pushing the gate open as they moved down towards the exit, Nicole and the others still trying to kill as many walkers as they could. Calling back over his shoulder at Rick, Daryl worked to turn the truck back around, putting on the brakes to turn and watch the other man. The walkers seemed to take notice, peeling away from the fence towards them as Rick stalled.

"Let's go." Daryl tried to prompt him, somewhat nervous at the close proximity of the walkers. Rick turned to look at him and then back at the dead before scooping up the first of the piglets, squeals filling the air around them as the pig struggled against the man's blade for a moment before being left to the walkers.

Moving forward on his signal, Daryl put a decent amount of space in between them and the feeding walkers before Rick called out for him to stop once more, grabbing at the second piglet. He turned back to study the herd as they drifted away from the fence, giving the others a chance to prop it back up with wooden beams.

The third and final piglet sent blood spraying up at Rick's own face, the man flinching away from it before releasing the animal. Daryl watched as he sunk into a seat position, lifting his hand to wave him forward after a moment. Throwing a glance back at the herd, he then pushed the car into forward, moving towards the bottom gate just as quickly as they had moved through it. Dead reached out eagerly as they moved, the big, metal gate pushing some of them against the spikes as someone pulled it open it up for them. There were no words from either of the men as Daryl pulled up next to the now empty wooden enclosure to let Rick out.

Watching as he turned to grab at one of the fence panels, Daryl swallowed the worry that begged him to say something. If he wanted to talk, he would talk, so instead Daryl turned back to the dirt road before him, moving the truck back up to where he had found it. He knew that the graves were waiting for him, bodies still left lying in the mid-day sun.

Nicole didn't know what to do, watching Carl reach his father with worry as others walked away to resume their tasks. She wanted to help but she didn't know how to.

With her hand shielding her eyes from the intense sun, she scanned the prison yard, finding Daryl by himself digging more graves. She covered the distance between herself and the makeshift and always expanding graveyard with long steps, the feet that only now were getting used to wear combat boots making enough noise for him to realize her presence.

Nicole didn't say a word, grabbing at the free shovel that rested next to an already dug grave. She could feel his eyes on her for a second, before the sound of dirt being removed from the ground reached her ears again.


	7. To trust or not to trust

No matter how hard Nicole scrubbed, she couldn't seem to wash off the increasingly familiar smell of death. Blood soaked dirt felt like it caked her skin from the mass of bodies she and the others had buried during the day, the palms of her hands worn and red from all the shoveling.

Rubbing shampoo into her scalp, Nicole grabbed the nearby bucket of water to pour it over her head. She stood unmoving for a moment before picking up the dipping ends of her hair from where it clung to her body, inhaling deeply to discover that death still lingered there. Releasing her breath, Nicole let her hand come to rest on the cool steel wall of the shower cubicle, goosebumps forming across her skin as she let the fresh water trickle from her body, her mind consumed with the events of that day.

Graves had been dug in silence all afternoon, with Glenn and Maggie joining her and Daryl after she had dug only a few inches of dirt. The couple had worked apart from each other, the silence between them only increasing the tension in the air, enhancing the moans of the dead that surrounded the fences. Rick's disgruntled figure had appeared minutes later, catching everyone's attention as he called for Daryl. He seemed to pause for a moment, distress clear in his features as his blue eyes inspected everyone. Nicole had tried to listen to what Rick said, as Daryl rubbed at his face a little rougher than necessary, dread filling her entire being as her mind conjured every possible scenario she could think of. Still, no one had dared to ask anything.

"Nicole?" A familiar voice echoed through the empty bathroom, bouncing off the steel walls around them. "You in here?"

Nicole's lips drew a small smile, thinking about the numerous times she had told everyone to call her Nicky and not Nicole. A time when she still cared about that. Like that was important. "Yeah," she called back to Beth, pausing for a moment before standing straight to collect her towel from its hook, stepping away from the wet floor to dry herself. Hesitant footsteps moved through the room, the other girl pulling herself up onto the basin. Nicole watched her curiously as she dried off. "You're not supposed to be near me."

"I know," Beth almost whispered, her eyes glued to the wall ahead as Nicole slipped on her top over damp skin. "Keeping away from everybody… It's harder than I thought." The bathroom fell silent, her eyes dropping to her lap. "I'm scared."

Leaning up against the cool steel, Nicole considered the notion. It was strange how, despite being older than Beth and Maggie, she always found herself feeling younger than the sisters, their braveness something Nicole knew she still didn't possess. She knew she was scared too, more than she could ever admit, but to hear it from Beth, to see it in Rick and Daryl's face earlier that day, made the feeling all too real.

Nicole nodded, a sad smile forming on her lips. "Me too."

"What if you all get sick? What if by the end of the week, it's just me and the little ones left." Beth looked back to her hands, her voice shaky. "You, Rick, Daryl, Glenn, Sasha,… You've all been exposed."

Nicole's entire being begged her to move to her friend, to tell her that everything was going to be okay, when in reality nobody could know for sure.

"I don't think I could do this without you all. We all have jobs to do, and we're supposed to be okay, but what if we're not?" Beth slipped from the basin, her eyes looking just as conflicted as Nicole felt.

"Were going to be okay."

"How do you know that?"

Nicole just shrugged, working hard to not close the distance between her and the younger girl. "Because we have to."

Neither of them said another word as Beth stared at her hands, finally nodding as she turned to leave, her gaze lingering on Nicole for a moment longer. It wasn't until she was sure that the footsteps had completely disappeared that Nicole let herself sink down onto the cool floor. The rest of the room around her felt too warm, her limbs too heavy as she tried to ignore the way Beth's words chanted over and over again in her mind, as if to taunt her. You've all been exposed. Tears started to pool in her eyes and with shaky hands, Nicole reached out for her boots, pulling them over her worn thin socks.

Pulling herself up from the floor with aching muscles, Nicole moved towards the exit, attempting once again to shove Beth's words from her mind and, instead of taking the usual turn down the corridor, towards the cell block, Nicole moved towards the closest exit, craving fresh air.

The courtyard was eerily quiet, with the entirety of D block either sick, in quarantine or heading that way, the usually crowded space was empty, completely silent. Nicole took in a deep breath, letting the fresh air wash over her body, reveling in the coolness it bought. Stepping down into the courtyard, her eyes went to where Hershel moved towards the cell blocks from the upper fence, Glenn in step beside him, lost in conversation. Looking up to the sky, Nicole realized that they would probably be running late to the council meeting that Hershel had organized overnight. The pair was making a move for the administration block when Sasha appeared from behind the heavy cell block door, her hand at her mouth and face pale as her aggressive coughs filled the space around them. Though she all but stumbled down the steps, she remained true to her independent nature, extending her hand shakily to stop Hershel as he moved to help her.

It was then that her eyes caught the big figure by the graveyard, Tyreese's movement transpiring pain and anger as he dug new graves. Bob was next to him, looking almost as confused as Nicole was, now that she had walked a few steps towards them and could see Tyreese's swollen face. Bob was talking to him and Nicole took another step in their direction, wanting to know what had happened, but stopped once she saw the menacing look Tyreese gave him. The bigger man continued to dig the graves, and the other joined him after a moment of silence.

Taking another deep breath, she moved towards the cell blocks. The Nicole from before would have asked them what was wrong, she would have meddled and insisted on knowing what was going on. But then again, everybody in her old life would have wanted to tell her their problems, they had always looked up to her. And these people didn't.

* * *

Michonne and Daryl moved towards the makeshift parking lot, the still half packed truck now sitting alongside the other vehicles, after they had moved and begun to unpack it the night before. The trip they were about to make, hoping that the veterinary college 40 miles away would give them the medication they needed, required that they switched out the truck in favor of a car with better fuel efficiency, and possibly even one that had seen fewer miles.

"We'll take Zack's." Daryl's voice was low as he gestured to the black Dodge Charger, the one the boy had been excited to find on one of their runs.

"We should bring more people with us," Michonne spoke as she transferred a crate of supplies into the trunk. "There's Maggie, but she shouldn't be in the same car as us, she hasn't been exposed yet. There's Rick, but he'll want to stay here with Carl and Judith, keep an eye on them."

"He'll have his hands full with figuring out what happened to Karen and David, anyway." Daryl nodded, biting at his lip as he straightened up from his leant position over the engine. "Who else we got?"

Nicole took a moment to process her thoughts, after hearing what had happened to Karen and David on the previous day. With arms outstretched to hold the open cell block door that led to the courtyard, she felt like she had been slapped with a cold wet towel, or someone had thrown her a bucket of iced water. How could someone have done that to them? Someone with who they had shared a meal and a roof over their heads. She didn't feel safe inside those fences, not anymore, not without knowing who to trust and who to keep an eye on.

With the midmorning sun partially blinding her, she scanned the seemingly empty courtyard, eyes widening once she found Michonne staring back at her. Daryl was there too, with his back to Nicole, and after sharing a few short words he too turned to look at her.

She didn't know if it was the news of Karen and David's death that made her feel uneasy, or the way the two looked at her, a look that evidently told Nicole she was the subject of their conversation, but she quickly looked away, suddenly not wanting to be outside.

"She would only slow us down," Daryl spoke, returning his attention to the car.

"Tyreese could probably use a change of scenery." Michonne mused, stepping around the Dodge to scan the field.

"I'll go find him."

* * *

Nicole looked back to the cell block, her heart slamming against her chest, trying to reject the fear that welled within her joints. Doctor S. was sick and so were some of the kids now. Along with her, only a hand full of people that lived in cell block C hadn't been infected by now. Despite everything happening, Nicole couldn't help but smile at the image of Carl's face when she had seen Rick giving him the news. The boy had refused to stay with the kids who weren't infected, even if his father had told him she needed him to protect them.

"How's Carl dealing with his new job?" There was a hint of amusement in Nicole's question.

"Refuses to sit still, roaming the halls as if the danger can be shot." Nicole could hear the smile in Rick's voice as she followed him through the dark tunnels.

The light from his flashlight followed the blood trails on the cement and although she was with Rick, fear still crept up on her. He had come to her and asked for her help, but when Nicole had asked him why were they going to the tombs, he hadn't answered.

Rick finally came to a stop by a door only partly opened, switching the flashlight off as he regarded her with curious eyes. "This is where we found the burnt bodies." He crouched down to gesture at the door frame, eyes narrowing in on the crimson that painted the steel. Nicole watched as he lifted a single hand to the blood, hovering it there as he studied the marking before turning to nod at her own hand. "Hold yours up."

Frowning, Nicole did as she was told, mimicking Rick's actions somewhat carefully. It was only then, as she held her own hand up above the dried blood that she realized it outlined a hand very close to the size of her own. She dropped it quickly, as if she was in trouble, eyes darting to the stained floor in front of her and then to Rick's eyes cautiously. "Do I need a lawyer, Sheriff?"


End file.
